It is an exciting time here in the Articulated Icons offices, so as promised, we are back with some updates. As you may know, the Lunar New Year festivities have been taking place over the past few weeks, but those have concluded, and work at the factory is up and running again. That brings some exciting news: tooling for all of our items is now underway! “Tooling” is the term for the process whereby the actual steel molds that will be used to create the figures are now being created.

This is one of the most complicated parts of the of the entire production cycle because each mold must be cut and created perfectly to ensure the level of detail and quality we are demanding for Articulated Icons. However, we are very confident in our factory as we have forged a great relationship with them, and their prior work shows they share our commitment to quality.

That said, we are expecting several rounds of testing approvals to make sure everything looks good, and each mold is engineered to maximize playability and stability. These reviews are absolutely crucial to ensure we are on the same page with the factory, and that changes can be made when needed. We are dealing with a lot of figures, and even more individual pieces (the more articulation, the more tiny joints are required), so we will be taking very detailed steps to ensure everything is able to come together properly. As the process moves along, we will be sure to keep you posted. Once physical tooling samples begin to be produced, we will share pictures and stories, we cannot wait to be able to do that, and we are very much on our way.

In somewhat related news, we wanted to share that our pre-orders are doing very well right now, and we are getting very close to closing pre-orders for several of our items. Shoken, Itami, Shibito, and Seijun are getting very close to selling out, so if you have been waiting on these guys, now is the time. Once these sell out, they will not be made available again, at least for this production run. We are currently not scheduled for any further runs at this time, so if you want them, come and get them!

Finally, we have had several inquiries about the need to update shipping addresses. We know this is very important, but do not fear: when we are close to actually shipping product (that is, within about two weeks) we will send out notifications to confirm or change your shipping address so that we have the right information. At the stage, you need not worry about updating your address, that will be handled when we are closer to ship time.

Thanks so much for patience and continued support, we really appreciate it. During the early stages of the tooling process there will likely be little to actually show, but we have several background stories and photo features of our characters that have not been shared yet, so expect some of those while we work through this very important step of production.

Silent shadows hold unseen danger. Steel whispers the fatal strike. Between breaths, between blinks, the ninja makes his home; a nightmare apparition that means death to those he seeks. In times long past or futures unwritten, these invisible assassins stalk their prey, draped in the stillness of the night, leaving only mystery in their passage. Beware the darkness that lay between myth and legend; the ninja is there. Immortal warriors that live only for the bloodlust of battle, the Great Ninja Clan is the most feared opponent. Where the others fight their wars in the light, the Ninja owns the shadows. But when the Ninja Master is betrayed and murdered by unknown assailants, the Great Ninja Clan is irreparably split apart. What was one is now many as ninja fights ninja and brother fights brother to the uttermost end.